Portimao: Ducati Friday notes

FABRIZIO (DUCATI XEROX) RESERVES A PROVISIONAL PLACE ON THE FRONT ROW FOR
SUNDAY'S RACES AT PORTIMAO
Portimao (Portugal) - Troy Bayliss and Michel
Fabrizio today took part in the first ever Superbike sessions to be held
at the new Autodromo ...

FABRIZIO (DUCATI XEROX) RESERVES A PROVISIONAL PLACE ON THE FRONT ROW FOR
SUNDAY'S RACES AT PORTIMAO

Portimao (Portugal) - Troy Bayliss and Michel
Fabrizio today took part in the first ever Superbike sessions to be held
at the new Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal.

Despite a very wet surface, both factory riders were out on track during
the morning's free practice session, with Bayliss topping the time sheets
and team-mate Fabrizio recording the fifth fastest time of the morning.
In the afternoon, after further rainfall, a slippery track which began to
dry throughout the session meant that the Ducati Xerox riders had to make
a careful tyre choice. Small setbacks during the session left Bayliss in
tenth position at the close of today's first qualifying session while
Fabrizio made better progress to finish the session in third position,
taking a provisional place on the front row for Sunday's races.

Michel Fabrizio 1m57.4s

"We were using an intermediate rear and rain front tyre which was
probably not the right choice but anyway we made good progress throughout
the day and I'm satisfied with how things have gone. Today the track
surface, although very wet, is already better than it was last week
during testing when it was really dirty. I'm feeling confident and today
we've made a good start, I'd say everything's going well."

Troy Bayliss 2m00.0s

"Everything has gone ok. It's the first time we've experienced rain here
as last week's test sessions were on a dry track. We had a few little
hiccups during the afternoon's qualifying session and it didn't quite run
to plan, and then we got caught out on a rain tyre at the end of the
session when we should have been on an intermediate. Anyway these things
happen and I'm still feeling confident about the way things are going.
Overall I'm pretty happy."